The invention relates generally to storage systems and, more specifically to storage systems used in surface mount manufacturing environments to increase floor space utilization.
Surface mount placement machines are well known in the art and are generally classified as either a gantry or turret style machine based on the design of the pick and place system. Gantry systems are generally constructed with a robot head mounted to one of two independent axes, the axes linearly translate to allow the head to pick up and place an individual surface mount component on a printed circuit board. Typically gantry style machines are used in low volume manufacturing applications to place odd shape or delicate surface mount components, examples of such components are ball grid arrays (BGAs) or fine-pitch quad flat packs (QFPs).
A turret style machine, often referred to as a chipshooter, is designed to place simple surface mount components on a printed circuit board in high volume manufacturing applications. Chipshooters are highly automated and are intended to operate with a minimum of operator intervention. Ideally, operator intervention is required only to insure that the chipshooter is supplied with raw materials, such as unfinished printed circuit boards and component reels loaded with individual surface mount devices like small outline integrated circuits (SOIC), resistors, capacitors, etc. To insure continuous operation of the chipshooters and to minimize production losses related to machine downtime, it is essential that raw materials be readily available. As a result, raw materials are generally stored as near to the chipshooters as possible.
A number of storage systems are presently utilized with chipshooters, each with varying degrees of success. For example, one known storage system uses a reinforced rectangular plastic bin constructed of a rigid plastic material. These bins are designed to interlock when vertically stacked and are sealable to protect their contents from moisture and other contaminants. The interior of these bins are featureless to maximize the quantity of surface mount component reels that can be stored within the bins. Normally, individual storage bins are preconfigured offline and loaded with the component reels and other raw materials necessary to manufacture a particular production lot, the configured storage bins are then transported to the appropriate production line prior to a product changeover. During the product changeover, the component reels are mounted on feeder cartridges, and the feeder cartridges, in turn, are installed in the proper position on a feeder bank associated with either the chipshooter or the gantry style machine. Excess bins containing spare component reels are stacked and are stored in accessible locations near the production line, an example of a typical location is the floor space in or around the aisle surrounding the chipshooter. When the surface mount placement machine uses all of the individual components on a component reel, the component reel can be replenished from a nearby bin in an attempt to minimize the equipment downtime.
Storage systems such as this have a number of flaws. For example, a single fully loaded bin is extremely heavy and is difficult for many operators to organize and transport. Moreover, a large amount of floor space is needed to store and organize spare and empty bins, floor space that could otherwise be converted into productive manufacturing space. Finally, the high initial and incremental costs associated with purchasing, replacing and maintaining enough bins to supply an entire manufacturing facility makes this system undesirable for many manufacturing applications.
To address these problems, some manufacturing facilities have begun to use a storage system modeled on portable industrial shelving to store and transport component reels. Industrial shelving storage systems are essentially wire storage racks mounted on rollers allowing them to be moved quickly and easily. Like the above described bins, this industrial shelving storage system can be preconfigured and loaded at an offline location and then positioned at a desired location near the production lines when needed. Using this storage system, a single individual can easily move all of the components needed to configure and supply an entire production line. By comparison to the multiple bin storage system described above, the industrial shelving storage system provides an efficient and cost-effective method of transporting and supplying raw materials to a production line. However, this system still requires a great deal of floor space to maneuver the racks into position around the production line and to store the racks when they are not in use.
A storage system is disclosed that better utilizes manufacturing storage space than some known storage systems, to enable a person to store and organize the large number of, for example, surface mount component reels, needed to supply a surface mount placement machine, such as a chipshooter or gantry style machine. This system enables a user to preconfigure storage trays in an offline location and then rapidly exchange them during a product changeover to reduce the total machine downtime.
One embodiment of a storage system includes a storage platform located directly above the feeder carriage of a surface mount placement machine. By positioning the storage platform directly above the surface mount placement machine the contents of the storage platform are directly accessible to an operator standing near the machine, either manually or using a mechanical lift modified to support the contents of the storage platform. The storage platform is attached to a vertical support member which is fixedly attached to, for example, the floor and is disposed adjacent to the feeder carriage, so that the storage platform is disposed within the footprint of the surface mount placement machine. The storage platform is adapted to accept a storage tray designed to allow component reels to be stored above the feeder carriage. Individual surface mount components reels are organized within the storage tray in the same sequence in which they will be utilized by the surface mount placement machine, the replacement component reels are readily accessible and well-organized, as a result component reel replacement times may be reduced. In an alternate embodiment, the storage platform is slightly inclined relative to a feeder bank disposed within the feeder carriage to allow automatic presentation of component reels when the storage tray is disposed upon the storage platform. In yet another embodiment, the storage tray is removably disposed relative to the storage platform allowing for rapid exchange of storage trays.